Wellington International Airport

Wellington has a significant high yielding underserved international market, with 50% of passengers travelling via intermediate airports

Wellington International Airport serves the capital city of New Zealand from an inner city location 5km from the central business district.  In 2011, 5.2 million passengers passed through the terminal.

The airport, ranked as Australasia’s best by travel agents in 2011, is New Zealand’s domestic hub, located in the geographic centre of the country and hosting over 100 daily flights to 25 domestic destinations.

Wellington is the second largest city in New Zealand by population and the airport catchment is home to 1.1 million people with the highest average incomes in the country.

Wellington has consistently been voted the most popular domestic visitor destination by New Zealanders since 2009, being the closest airport to New Zealand’s world famous wine regions and home to many of the country’s finest award winning restaurants.  The harbour city is an established cruise ship port and hosts the New Zealand leg of the IRB Rugby Sevens tournament along with the widely acclaimed World of Wearable Art awards. Wellington is also home to the interactive National Museum of New Zealand - Te Papa; the most visited museum/gallery in Australasia, and the world-famous Wellywood film industry which has created 2 of the top 5 highest grossing films of all time.

An integrated international/domestic terminal completed in October 2010 facilitates seamless passenger transfers and can accommodate code E aircraft (777, 747 etc.) and smaller. 

Wellington’s international market size was over 850,000 passengers in 2011, with 400,000 (47%) of those travelling indirectly via another New Zealand or Australian airport to or from their destination of choice.  Over 250,000 passengers travel between long haul markets and Wellington indirectly, as no long haul services currently operate at the airport.  The city has established a multi-million dollar fund to incentivise the Capital’s first long haul operator.

Current traffic patterns provide aircraft operators with a range of high yielding route opportunities to serve both existing and new markets.  Wellington provides a significant freight opportunity for operators of larger aircraft, as less than 1% of New Zealand’s aviation freight passes through the airport, even though 30% of the country’s economic activity takes place within the airport’s catchment.